22nd December 2024 – Akrotiri Peninsula, Cyprus

Our second day proper of the natural history trip was a very good one with lots of interesting birds and plants to see in a variety of venues on the Akrotiri Peninsula, about an hour’s drive to the east of Paphos.

We had mixed weather but managed to stay dry all day. However the light was not good and not very conducive for good photos or, indeed, any photos at all.

We started at the Zakaki bird hide which, although it had fabulous large posters of the birds to be seen, was poorly managed and we couldn’t see much through the giant reeds.

Locally we did have lots of sightings of marsh harriers and a kestrel and some of the group saw a male hen harrier. Despite my attempt to take plenty of photos, I achieved very little. When will I ever learn that tiny specks in my view finder will never produce decent photos?

We walked further along the road to a pool next to the sea where there were greater flamingos and lots of gulls (mainly black-headed but some slender-billed and one larger one which caused lots of discussion without a definitive id.).

We drove west along some mud flats (Lady’s Mile) but saw very little.

We crossed the estuary on the low tide in the coach and eventually arrived at a monastery (no one around – they must have all been in chapel) where we parked and walked to Bishop’s Pool. The walk here was very interesting with people spotting lots of butterflies, a hummingbird moth, carpenter bees and many interesting plants.

At the pool there were lots of ducks including shovelers, little grebes and, the best of the pick, a ferruginous duck.

After lunch we moved on to a wetlands where there was plenty to see but impossible to photograph as it was into the poor light. The highlight here were spur winged plovers.

Our last visit was to the Kensington Cliffs where we were treated to views of a long legged buzzard and a peregrine. We also looked more closely at a variety of the vegetation on the cliff tops.